True Life Tuesday: Harold Holt

This is a mystery that spawned some crazy conspiracy theories about what happened to the Australian prime minister.

Harold Holt was born in Sydney on August 5, 1908. Both of his parents were school teachers who divorced when he was young. He attended undergrad at Wesley College in Melbourne and law school at the University of Melbourne. He graduated from law school in 19030 and was admitted to the bar in 1931. 

He was first elected to Parliament in 1935. He enlisted in the 2nd Australian Imperial Force in 1940 but he was called back to Parliament after 5 months. In 1949 he became the Minister for Labour and National Services and held the position for 9 years. He was very progressive in his ideas. He worked to abolish the White Australia Policy which was used to discriminate against non-European immigrants. 

Holt became the 17th Prime Minister of Australia on January 26, 1966 after the retirement of the previous PM. He was very supportive on the US involvement in Vietnam. This proved to be very unpopular in the country and there was a push to keep Australian troops out of the war.

On December 19, 1967 he was swimming near Portsea, Victoria. The seas were very rough and many people on the beach asked him to stay out of the water. His last words were allegedly "I know this beach like the back of my hand." He disappeared in the water and was assumed to have drown. He was declared dead on December 19, 1967 and his body was never found. He was the 3rd Prime Minister to die in office. 

Many theories were put forth about his death. He had shoulder surgery recently and was advised two days before the disappearance to take it easy. it is possible that he did not have the strength to handle the rough seas. Another theory was that he committed suicide because of the issues he was facing at work and his marriage which was in trouble. However, the police in their report stated that there was no proof of this theory. The craziest on is that he was actually a Chinese spy. It has been put forth that his mission was over so he was picked up by a Chinese submarine and went back to China to live out the rest of his life. While the theories are fun to speculate on I think the most likely scenario is that this was just a tragic accident.